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07/30/2013

Cuccinelli dismisses McAuliffe call to return gifts

This morning during his regular radio show on WTOP in Washington, D.C. Governor Bob McDonnell revealed the next stage of his political redemption plan. McDonnell is in the process of returning every single gift or loan ever given to him or his family by Jonnie Williams, the CEO of Star Scientific.

In total- McDonnell plans to return or pay back close to $200,000 given to him and his family by Williams.

The announcement automatically sent Democrats into action. The McAuliffe campaign immediately renewed their call for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to repay his gifts from Williams.

"Governor Bob McDonnell just announced on WTOP that he will be
returning all the gifts his family received from Star Scientific CEO
Jonnie Williams," said McAuliffe spokesperson Josh Schwerin. "Ken
Cuccinelli now has no choice but to follow his lead and
return the $18,000 worth of gifts that he got from the scandal-plagued
CEO and company. On the heels of the news that Cuccinelli's conflict of
interest has already cost taxpayers more than $50,000 in legal fees,
its the least Cuccinelli can do to return all
of his gifts."

McAuliffe has repeatedly worked to link Cuccinelli to the Star-Scientific scandal, but Republicans wouldn't even entertain the notion of Cuccinelli returning gifts to Williams.

"Terry
McAuliffe lecturing anyone on gifts is laughable. Terry first needs to
repay the millions he profited from GlobalCrossing and Telergy when
thousands of employees lost their jobs.
Then, he must explain the how many political strings he pulled to try
and secure visas for Chinese investors – some of whom represented a
national security threat – to finance his struggling car company
GreenTech Automotive," said spokesperson Anna Nix. " Ken Cuccinelli has always run an
open and honest campaign for governor, while Terry continues to use
scare tactics to distract voters from his deceitful statements, broken
promises of job creation and shady financial history."

Cuccinelli initially failed to disclose thousands of dollars in gifts that came from Williams in the form of vacation stays, plane rides and supplements. He voluntarily amended his report and referred his situation to Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Herring who found no evidence he broke the law.